The CBC & Radio-Canada Media Solutions team has combined its sales and marketing functions on the English CBC business to make it “more competitive” in the marketplace, the company announced Tuesday.
The new structure combines the broadcaster’s multi-platform sales operations in Toronto and Western Canada with its content marketing, strategic solutions, sports partnerships and digital innovation marketing operations.
Jean Mongeau, general manager and chief revenue officer for CBC and Radio-Canada Media Solutions, said the move followed a similar consolidation of the sales and marketing functions for the CBC’s French-language arm Radio-Canada introduced about six months ago.
“We felt it was the appropriate time for us to move forward with the same type of structure on the English side,” said Mongeau. “As we look at the way business is being conducted, clients are looking for us to come up with some fully integrated solutions – whether to their requests for proposals or business imperatives.
“The sales operations and the content marketing groups appeared to be in need of a closer relationship, with limited gaps between the people on the ground serving clients and the way we’re going about devising solutions internally,” he added. “We’re looking for more cohesiveness and collaboration, allowing our units to work in a more harmonized way.”
Mongeau said a previous consolidation of the sales and marketing functions on the Radio-Canada business has led to a significant improvement in both relevancy and time to market for marketing solutions.
“We’ve seen much more fluid interaction between the various units that has allowed clients to have some pretty appealing opportunities put in front of them at a more rapid pace,” he said.
Mary Kreuk, the long-time Bell Media sales executive who joined the CBC last year, will oversee the revamped team in her new role as executive director, multiplatform media sales and marketing.
Reporting into Kreuk are Robin Neufeld, director of content marketing and strategic solutions; and Errol Da-Ré, head of sports and Olympic sales, and sports marketing.
Toronto-based national sales directors Karen Eckert and Michele McEnery, as well as digital sales director Heather Gordon, will also report into Kreuk.
Liane Tabah, senior manager of strategic solutions for Radio-Canada in Toronto, and Adrienne Allan, senior manager of strategic solutions for CBC Toronto will report to Neufeld – who is now responsible for coordinating all non-sports national content initiatives such as Dragon’s Den and its French counterpart Dans l’oeil du dragon.
The broadcaster also announced the departure of senior director of marketing and sports partnerships Jim Kozak, who joined the company from Kraft Canada in 2012 as director of sales, Olympics and sports partnerships.
There have been no other layoffs as a result of the consolidation, and none are planned, said Mongeau. “The team here is solid, seasoned and experienced, and we have strong assets that we intend to continue capitalizing on.”
Mongeau said first quarter sales for CBC Radio-Canada were looking “fairly stable,” particularly since the absence of Canadian teams in the Stanley Cup playoffs led to first round ratings that were considerably lower than last year.
“It has translated into opportunities for us, as advertisers are looking for the reach and the weight that is unfortunately not coming from the current hockey offering during the playoffs,” said Mongeau.
“We’ve been able to secure advertisers who would normally have been heavily invested in hockey [and] have turned to us to support their needs.”
